Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Level 2, a whole new kind of crazy.

Civilians in Russia are massacred and the Americans get the blame for it.  The result is total chaos, World War 3 on an epic scale.  If Michael Bay and Tom Clancy got together, what they created might come close to Modern Warfare 2.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 16 14 PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 9 7 4   9 0 2 0 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 0 1 6 8 7 0 5

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 9

Have you ever wanted to be the star in an action movie?  The kind where there are tons of explosions, absurd amounts of blood, and impossible stunts?  That’s basically a summation of Modern Warfare 2.  It’s the kind of game that makes you go “that’s not possible” but in an extremely entertaining way.

Jump!

Some things have changed since the first Modern Warfare.  I was surprised the graphic nature of the violence.  The first Modern Warfare was relatively mild considering the quantity of violence, but Modern Warfare 2 sees a significant increase in the amount of blood.

Well that'll certainly hurt the resale value.

The absurdity of the situations has also increased.  While the scenarios in the first Modern Warfare felt at least slightly plausible, the situations in Modern Warfare 2 seemed much less realistic.  The game makes the jump from “implausible action” to “impossible action” with scenes like being airlifted straight through a 10 story building by a cable attached to a helicopter (as the building was being bombed) and using a snowmobile to jump a 100+ foot chasm to the safety of the awaiting evacuation helicopter.  I certainly didn’t mind the absurdity of the action (I love crazy action movies), but it definitely gave me a different feeling than games like Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Up, up, and away!

The campaign was longer than I thought and by itself would have made this game decently awesome.  I found the multiplayer much less interesting than that in the first Modern Warfare mostly because it was more of the same but slightly more complicated.  Considering how much I had already played the first Modern Warfare, I never really felt the desire to put in the time and energy necessary to unlock all of the weapons, titles, skins, and other things that are available.  I will say one thing though, if a player did want to go for all of the unlockables in the multiplayer, it easily would take them months.  There’s a ton of stuff available in multiplayer.

After the campaign was done I was pleased with the game, but not really enthralled.  It wasn’t the kind of thing that I’d go back to and replay.  Fortunately, I gave the “special ops” missions a try.  The “Special Ops” missions are specific scenarios that the player can go through to test the player’s abilities.  There’s a wide variety of types.  Many require the player to get from one point to another.  Sometimes this is meant to be achieved stealthily, other times the player is supposed to kill as many enemies as possible along the way.

The real fun came in when I played cooperatively with one of my friends.  We played three levels together and, though the levels were difficult at times, we managed to beat all three at the highest difficulty level.  It was a complete rush.  It’s one of the best gaming experiences I have had in quite some time and definitely made the entire game worth buying.

• Length – 7

As I mentioned, there’s a lot to do in this game.  Single-player fans have a full campaign with lots of hidden extras for those who want to go on a hunt for hidden intel.  There’s also a full battery of Special Ops missions that a player can undertake on their own or with a friend.  Multiplayer fans will have endless hours of rampaging with a variety of game modes.  The amount of unlockables in the multiplayer mode is absurd.  This game will last a while.

• Frustration Factor - 4

Parts of this game were somewhat frustrating but nothing so aggravating that I wanted to stop playing.  The amount of times my character died in the story, not because of my failure but because that’s how the story was meant to play out, was a bit annoying.  Throughout the course of the game you play as four different people, three of whom end up dead.

There were points when I didn’t seem to understand the exact path that the developers wanted me to follow.  Sometimes this would end with me being lost for 10 minutes, other times it would end with me dying over and over again.  At the higher difficulty levels, mistakes are deadly.  I’m great at these kinds of games and I still would end up frustrated trying to play through the campaign on “Veteran” (the hardest difficulty level).

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 9
  

The violence has significantly increased from the first Modern Warfare.  The average amount of blood has increased greatly.  When shot, enemies will spray blood and, sometimes, will pool blood around their dead bodies.  There are also numerous dead bodies around levels, most of which have a large amount of blood present.

I don't envy whoever has to clean that up.

Decapitation and loss of limbs is absent from this game, though.  Explosions will cause enemies to fly up into the air or fall over limply, but the enemies will never show any signs of gore.  There are a number of cases of scripted executions, however.  For example, in one section the player will come up from a deep dive to grab an enemy and slit his throat underwater (a scene that was clearly replicated in Call of Duty: Black Ops).

Surprise!

When the player is damaged, his screen will fill with blood spots.  The amount of blood will depend on how badly the player is damaged.  There were some times when the blood filled so much of the screen that I was unable to see and was easy prey for advancing enemies.

Really, how am I supposed to see like this?

There is one scene where the player is killed and immolated in full first-person view.  Technically the player is supposed to be dead when his body is burned, but that isn’t really definitively stated.

Who wants toast?!

In the final scene, the player is stabbed by an American general.  The player will eventually have to forcefully remove the knife from his own chest then use it to throw right into the general’s forehead.

Thanks to the helpful symbol, I now know that the thing stuck in my chest is a knife!

For those of you who have heard of the “No Russian” level, I cover that content in the “anti-law” section since its level of violence was not much higher than a normal level.

• Sexuality - 0

Sexuality is not a factor in this game.

• Substances - 2

There are a few instances of substance use / presence in this game.  At least two scenes, characters are seen smoking cigars.

And then, in this case, lighting you on fire with it.

In another scene, the player will sit in a humvee as it drives down the street.  On the dashboard of the humvee is a can of chewing tobacco.

Sneaky sneaky.

• Gambling - 0

Gambling is not a factor in this game.

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 0

There are no mods available for this game.

• Religion - 0

Early on the American forces are fighting Middle Eastern insurgents who are definitely wearing Islamic turbans and menacing glares.  However, their religion is never specifically mentioned.

That's their happy face.

• Anti-Law - 6

There were plenty of news stories surrounding the “No Russian” level of the campaign.  The player is put in the shoes of an American CIA operative deep undercover in the midst of a highly-skilled mercenary band.  The band has been hired to attack an airport in Russia and kill as many civilians as possible.  They load up with assault rifles and machine guns and literally unload hundreds of rounds into a crowded airport.  They take their time with it too, casually walking through the airport as they continue their slaughter.  Eventually the player has to kill the airport cops, local police, and heavily armored SWAT teams.

How do you say, "You can't opt out of the pat down" in Russian?

That sucks, it definitely does.  But there are two specific things that aid the developers.  First, it forwards the storyline.  The player is introduced to the leader of the mercenaries, who is pivotal throughout the rest of the game.  The player doesn’t even have to kill any civilians (the other characters do enough of that).

This seems a bit one-sided.

If that still doesn’t deter you, maybe the fact that you have to “allow” the mission when you start the campaign before you can access it.  Twice.  If you say “no”, the game will simply skip that mission and you won’t lose anything in the process.  This mission should not have gotten the coverage that it did.

Yes I agree that I agreed that I gave permission that I understand that I agreed to play the level.

The player will also be posed to kill potentially corrupted American soldiers.  The general that they’re serving has betrayed the United States and the player is on a mission to kill that general.  They’re not directly identified as American soldiers, but the fact that they’re serving a former American general seems to imply it.

• Online Community - 8

The online community for this game is very, very skilled.  I consider myself to be a fairly good Call of Duty player, yet there were plenty of times when I felt like I was getting massacred.  Keep in mind that I was still getting used to the multiplayer game modes and levels, but the players were definitely very skilled.  Other than that, I never saw any real problems with the multiplayer community.

• Extreme Sports - 7
  

There are a number of examples of “extreme sports” in this game.  In one of the early levels the player will be required to race a snowmobile down a sort of frozen canyon.  The player will be required to shoot enemy snowmobiles with an automatic pistol while driving at high speeds.

James Bond has nothing on me.

At the end of that segment, the player will be required to use the snowmobile to vault a huge canyon in order to get to the evacuation point for extraction.

Why can't the helicopter just land on this side of the ravine?

There are numerous cases where the player will be required to rappel down cliffs.

Indoor rappelling down the wall of a gulag. That's safe.

One of those instances of rappelling will require the player to slow himself as he creeps up on an unsuspecting enemy.  He eventually stabs that enemy in a silent infiltration of an enemy stronghold.

"Said the spider to the fly..."

Towards the end of the game, the player will have to drive a dinghy in a similar fashion to the snowmobile.  He will also be required to shoot enemies while driving.  He will also have to drive down a white-water rapid and eventually drive right off of a tall waterfall.

James Bond's dinghy would have wings and a jet engine for just this kind of problem.

There are many more examples of extreme sports in this game that I couldn’t hope to cover.  I’ll just say that if one person actually attempted everything that happens in this game, he’d have been killed at least ten times before getting halfway through the list.

• Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

• Miscellaneous - 5
  

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Nuclear warfare is a serious factor in the entire game.  At one point a nuclear missile is launched and explodes over the United States, causing a nation-wide EMP and destroying the International Space Station.  I can’t explain how the shockwave managed to destroy the ISS in space (considering there’s no air), but the player gets a front row seat either way.  He views the entire event as an astronaut who’s in space and ends up getting killed by the debris from the station.

Even Michael Bay said "Wtf, space shockwave?"

Interrogation

In one scene, one of the characters gives the player some instructions while another character clearly prepares a car battery for use in an interrogation.  This is clearly an unmodified car battery that would almost certainly kill anyone who was shocked by it for any length of time.  The actual interrogation, however, is not shown.

Wait, is that a car battery? Are we interrogating him or killing him?

Civilian Massacre

As I mentioned, the “No Russian” level puts the player in a scenario where he and other characters massacre innocent civilians.  Hundreds of civilians end up dead.